This one, I assure you, will be a short blog post-because my photos and videos from this trip got corrupted 😶😶😶

One of the salvaged photos. This photo could have been taken anywhere without an indication that this was in Macau wahahahahahahaha!

Anyhoo, last January I went to Hong Kong with my perenial lakwatsera cousin, ate Lot, and during that trip we decided to have a day tour to Macau-because hey, been to Hong Kong twice but never been to Macau. Macau is like a pond (ok, exagerrating here) away from Hong Kong, which means an hour ferry will take you there in one piece.
A roundtrip ferry ride will cost you around 400 HKD, and upon arrival at the ferry terminal nearby Harbour Mall in TST (but upon checking it's already in Sheung Wan 🤷‍♀️). Do take note that there are like scalpers around the area offering different rates depending on the time of departure. Usually you'll be able to save more if you buy a roundtrip ticket already, but since we have no idea what time we'll be back in Hong Kong, we decided to push for a single trip ticket first.


Have I mentioned that the ferry ride will cost you a good 1 hour of anxiety? I am terrified of boats and ferrocious waves, so while I was at the ferry I was gripping at my chair trying to will myself to fall asleep-which I didn't, because good thing the waves weren't as violent as I was expecting *phew*.

So once you arrive at the Macau ferry terminal, expect to see the same amount of security like in airports. It's a must to bring your passport (I mean, really during travels you must have your passport near your body at ALL TIMES), because they'll give you this slip where it indicates you only have this certain time period to stay in their country (or city, or region? Idk what to make of this place tbh).

Me to Macau 🙃

After getting through all the stamping and customs stuff, you are now spewed to the outside world where you'll be haggled by people offering costly taxi services, and tours. Since we are not really considering that, we decided to venture first to the old places of Macau where you get to see buildings that look like the facade of University of Santo Tomas hahaha!

Di masarap yung milktea na iniinom ko dyan, isang oras ko yan hawak hawak 🤷‍♀️

One of the places we went is the facade of St Paul's ruins, which is jampacked with people. We opted not to to go near it anymore, and off we go to the stores that provide free taste of cured beef jerkies with different flavors and levels of spicyness-I mean, dude you can get yourself full in free taste alone! Hahahaha! I assure you, you wouldn't feel awkward getting free taste, because people around you are also getting a palm's full of samples 🤷‍♀️😂👏

Kala ko moment ko na.

A church. Yey.

While strolling around, you'll get to notice a lot of signs in Portuguese, that's because Macau was actually conquered by Portugal before, hence the influence in architecture and culture. After taking more photos while trying out their famous egg tarts (mas masarap pa yung sa Julie's tho hahaha jk, ang mahal kasi), we have decided to head over to the casinos and do some damage-chos, pang mcdo nalang pera namin. So coming from the vicinity of St. Paul's ruins, we decided to walk over to the nearest casino, take a free shuttle going back to the ferry terminal, then from there take another shuttle going to Taipa, the central of all casinos in Macau. The nearest one with the most available shuttle was in Wynn hotel and casino, and ohhhh boy what a journey it took us to get there.


Ok, so here's what happened, the nearest hotel and casino to us was actually Hotel Lisboa, however they don't seem to have a free shuttle service, so we opt to go to Wynn instead which is just across the road. Unfortunately, while it seems so near going there was quite a challenge because there are no pedestrian lines nor an elevated walkway that could get us there, but there is an underground walkway, and this is where things get interesting.

Usually when you go down an underground walkway, you expect a flight of stairs where a beam of sunshine is waiting for you, however this was not the case because the moment we got in the underground walkway there was just a door waiting for us to open at the end of the dimly-lit tunnel. Reluctantly, we open it, where we are led to another narrow tunnel now leading to an elevator, and a flight of stairs. Seeing that there are already a group of people waiting im the elevator, we opt to take the stairs instead. When we reached the 2nd floor, we realized that we ended up in an underground carpark with no directions how to go inside the Wynn hotel. With luck, guts, and a dozen novenas, we decided to just trust our instincts and go where we feel is the right direction. After opening 2 more doors, we have finally set foot... outside of Wynn hotel 🙈🙈🙈 Just when I thought we have already infiltrated the hotel itself, we were actually only led to the garden and the lakeside, and only a couple meters away from Hotel Lisboa *facepalm*.

you guys have no idea how my heart felt relieved when we saw the light hahahahah!

After hopping in a shuttle, which took us like 5 minutes only going back to the ferry, we then hopped in to a free shuttle going to Venetian Macau.

Mah cousin

I now get the concept of this eternally sunny ceiling, because you'll definitely lose the conceot of time while inside this humongous complex! Aside from the hotel, museum, and a replica of Tour de Eiffel (which costs a lot of $$$ just to go inside it), they also have different wings full of shops, and a canal where charismatic boat guys sing to you, and say bellisima to you (though I am pretty sure it was intended for my cousin hahaha).

Kunware di pa ako gutom, kasi ang mahal ng pagkain dito 🤷‍♀️🙃🙃🙃🙃

Just a side note, HKD, or Hong Kong Dollar, is accepted here so there's no need to worry if you have to convert money prior to going to Macau. Alsooooo, things are A LOT MORE expensive in Macau compared to Hong Kong. There are not much convenience stores in there so a bottle of water or a can of coke would take you as much as 30 to 40 Hong Kong Dollars, so better take a bottle of hydration with you before hopping into that ferry. As per my cousin, Macau is actually a good place to buy designer stuff because they are less expensive, and has more designs compared to here in Manila.

By around 7:30 p.m. we said our goodbyes to Macau, our eyes satisfied with all the grandeur it has to offer, but our tummies literally empty hahaha! This place is just ridiculously expensive.

One last tita pose before I face the waves again. Awuw.

Love always,
Nicole 😘🤗

P.S.
So much for a short blogpost 🙃🙈🤷‍♀️